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5th Grote Prijs Sven Nys (Gazet van Antwerpen Trofee #6) - C2
Baal, Belgium, January 1, 2004
2003 Results Results Past winners
Nys breaks Wellens' run
...but Wellens wraps up GVA series
Belgian champion Sven Nys (Rabobank) has brought the unbeaten run of Bart Wellens in the Gazet van Antwerpen Trofee to an end by winning the sixth round, the appropriately titled GP Sven Nys, on a snow covered course in Baal today. In front of his home crowd, Nys finished ahead of Ben Berden (John Saey-Deschacht) and Tom Vannoppen (Palmans-Collstrop), while Wellens could only manage fifth. But in doing so, Wellens wrapped up the GVA series having gained 201 points in six rounds, well ahead of Nys and Berden who are each on 160 points in second and third place. With just one round to go (Oostmalle), Wellens cannot be beaten.
Sven Nys kept his excellent record in this race intact, now having won four of the five editions. His only blemish came in 2002 when he was beaten by Mario de Clercq. De Clercq was not present today however, choosing to race in Luxembourg where he demolished the field to win. But even De Clercq would have had trouble beating Nys today, who attacked from the start and rode away from the field. Bart Wellens reacted on the second lap, but quickly found that he didn't have the legs and had to let Nys go.
Nys changed his bike three times for various reasons, but still none of the chasers could close the gap to the World Cup leader and it became a battle for second place. On the second last lap, Berden attacked and Wellens tried to go with him, but couldn't follow and was passed by both Tom Vannoppen and Peter Van Santvliet on the final lap.
"Nys had a day today that I've already had many of in the past months and against that I had no answer," said Wellens afterwards. "Therefore no champagne from Gazet van Antwerpen, I have to look to my own cellar."
There was champagne for Sven Nys from his own supporters. "I've ridden like Wellens has done so often this season...I knew that the condition was there and I had already shown it without the bad luck that I had in Koksijde and Loenhout. This time the bad luck stayed behind me and the result can be seen. I'm just in time for the most important part of the year. The period of the championships. It's great that I could do this in front of my home crowd."
Results
Elite/U23 1 Sven Nys (Bel) Rabobank 58.06 2 Ben Berden (Bel) John Saey-Deschacht 0.11 3 Tom Vannoppen (Bel) Palmans-Collstrop 0.24 4 Peter Van Santvliet (Bel) Spaar Select 0.33 5 Bart Wellens (Bel) Spaar Select 0.44 6 Erwin Vervecken (Bel) Spaar Select 0.52 7 Christian Heule (Swi) 0.56 8 Sven Vanthourenhout (Bel) Quick Step-Davitamon 1.05 9 Davy Commeyne (Bel) Palmans-Collstrop 1.06 10 Maxime Lefebvre (Fra) 1.07 11 Richard Groenendaal (Ned) Rabobank 1.35 12 Jan Verstraeten (Bel) Vlaanderen-T Interim 1.52 13 Arne Daelmans (Bel) Vlaanderen - T Interim 2.10 14 Vaclav Jezek (Cze) 2.22 15 Bart Aernouts (Bel) Rabobank 2.38 16 Tim Van Nuffel (Bel) John Saey-Deschacht 2.48 17 Wim Jacobs (Bel) Spaar Select 3.58 18 Radomir Simunek (Cze) 4.05 19 Kevin Pauwels (Bel) 4.15 20 Sébastien Minard (Fra) 4.33 21 Jan Soetens (Bel) 5.13 22 Wesley Van Der Linden (Bel) 5.31 23 Frantisek Kloucek (Cze) 5.43 24 Eddy Van Bouwel (Bel) 6.13 25 Mike Thielemans (Bel) 6.31 26 Daniel Hufnagel (Aut) 6.54 1 lap behind 27 Daniel Alexander (GBr) Juniors 1 Bart Verschueren (Bel) 40.00 2 Pieter Vanspeybroeck (Bel) 0.18 3 Stijn Joseph (Bel) 1.00 4 Ian Bibby (GBr) 1.27 5 Maxim Debusschere (Bel) 1.38 6 Dries Dewit (Bel) 2.00 7 Kristof Luyten (Bel) 2.10 8 Quentin Bertholet (Bel) 3.00 9 Gianni Denolf (Bel) 3.55 10 Steven Van Bael (Bel) 4.00 11 Thomas Tucker (USA) 12 Dirk Smets (Bel) 13 Seppe Odeyn (Bel) 14 Davy Vanderstukken (Bel) 15 Steven Dierickx (Bel) Novices 1 Kristof Zegers (Bel) 31.30 2 Laurens De Vreese (Bel) 3 Jan Van Zeebrouck (Bel) 4 Kenny Verstrepen (Bel) 5 Kristof Cop (Bel) 2.00 6 Dave De Cleyn (Bel) 2.30 7 Birger Leys (Bel) 3.00 8 Tom Oerlemans (Bel) 3.12 9 Jan Van Eepoel (Bel) 3.17 10 Niels Beelen (Bel) 11 Stijn Mortelmans (Bel) 12 Bart Wouters (Bel) 13 Vincent Baestaens (Bel) 14 Sam Solia (Bel) 15 Amy Hunt (GBr)
Gazet van Antwerpen Trofee standings after round 6
Elite Men 1 Bart Wellens (Bel) Spaar Select 201 pts 2 Ben Berden (Bel) John Saey-Deschacht 160 2 Sven Nys (Bel) Rabobank 160 4 Peter Van Santvliet (Bel) Spaar Select 155 5 Erwin Vervecken (Bel) Spaar Select 148 6 Arne Daelmans (Bel) Vlaanderen - T Interim 143 7 Maxime Lefebvre (Fra) 128 8 Richard Groenendaal (Ned) Rabobank 126 9 Tom Vannoppen (Bel) Palmans-Collstrop 124 10 Sven Vanthourenhout (Bel) Quick Step-Davitamon 116 11 Vaclav Jezek (Cze) 109 12 Davy Commeyne (Bel) Palmans-Collstrop 106 13 Jan Verstraeten (Bel) Vlaanderen-T Interim 90 14 Wim Jacobs (Bel) Spaar Select 85 15 Christian Heule (Swi) 72 16 Gerben De Knegt (Ned) Rabobank 58 17 Camiel van den Bergh (Ned) John Saey-Deschacht 51 18 Tim Van Nuffel (Bel) John Saey-Deschacht 45 19 Wilant Van Gils (Ned) WTC Woerden 43 20 Petr Dlask (Cze) 38 21 Michael Baumgartner (Swi) 31 22 Roger Hammond (GBr) Palmans-Collstrop 29 23 David Willemsens (Bel) 25 24 Mario De Clercq (Bel) Palmans-Collstrop 24 25 Tim Pauwels (Bel) 23 26 Dariusz Gil (Pol) 22 26 Bjorn Rondelez (Bel) Wincor-Nixdorf 22 26 Thomas Frischknecht (Swi) Swisspower Team 22 29 Matthew Ellis (GBr) John Saey-Deschacht 21 30 Eddy Van Bouwel (Bel) 15 31 David Seco (Spa) 13 31 Kamil Ausbuher (Cze) 13 31 Jonathan Page (USA) 13 34 Ronny Poelvoorde (Bel) 12 35 Isaac Suarez (Spa) 11 35 Kevin Bossaerts (Bel) 11 35 Maarten Nijland (Ned) Heijdens-Ten Tusscher 11 38 Thijs Verhaegen (Ned) 10 39 Tadeusz Korzeniewski (Pol) 7 40 Jan Van Doninck (Bel) 5 40 David Rusch (Swi) 5 42 Robert Glajza (Svk) 4 42 Alexander Daniel (GBr) 4 44 Marek Cichosz (Pol) 2 45 David Collins (GBr) 1 U23 1 Wesley Van Der Linden (Bel) 107 pts 2 Bart Aernouts (Bel) Rabobank 102 3 Kevin Pauwels (Bel) 86 4 Radomir Simunek (Cze) 66 5 Geert Wellens (Bel) Spaar Select 62 5 Martin Zlamalik (Cze) 62 7 Jan Soetens (Bel) 53 8 Nick Sels (Bel) 39 9 Klaas Vantornout (Bel) 36 10 Vladimir Kyzivat (Cze) 35 11 Lars Boom (Ned) 34 12 Stijn Penne (Bel) 33 13 Mariusz Gil (Pol) 31 14 Nicky David (Bel) 23 14 Simon Zahner (Swi) 23 16 Eddy Van Ijzendoorn (Ned) 21 17 Dieter Vanthourenhout (Bel) 19 18 Jef De Boeck (Bel) 18 19 Jorn Van Der Veken (Bel) Kapelle op den Bos 16 20 Mike Thielemans (Bel) 14 21 Sébastien Minard (Fra) 11 22 Krzysztof Kuzniak (Pol) 10 22 Alois Lievens (Bel) 10 22 Koen De Kort (Ned) 10 25 Frederik Herpol (Bel) 9 25 Tom Van Den Bosch (Bel) 9 25 Frantisek Kloucek (Cze) 9 28 Martin Bina (Cze) 8 28 Sebastiaan Langeveld (Ned) 8 30 Dries Devenyns (Bel) 7 30 Pieter Ghyllebert (Bel) 7 32 Toon Devenyns (Bel) 5 32 Slawomir Pituch (Pol) 5 32 Daniel Hufnagel (Aut) 5 35 Gino De Temmerman (Bel) 4 35 Guus Magielse (Ned) 4 37 Vincent Rosseel (Bel) 3 37 Lorenzo Van Damme (Bel) 3 39 Sébastien Durieux (Bel) 2 39 Stig Geerts (Bel) 2 39 Roger Schüppli (Swi) 2 42 Dimitri Van Hoolandt (Bel) 1 42 Dirk Bertels (Bel) 1 42 Jeroen Thielemans (Bel) 1
Past winners
2003 Sven Nys (Bel) Rabobank 2002 Mario De Clercq (Bel) Domo-Farm Frites 2001 Sven Nys (Bel) 2000 Sven Nys (Bel) Past winners by Mario Stiehl, www.world-of-cycling.com
